


Message Received

by ami_ven



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Community: writerverse, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 03:43:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6549175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was amazing how quickly Darcy had become a permanent fixture in Bruce’s life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Message Received

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "writerverse" prompt "did I say that?"

Jane and Thor left the tower for a week in New Mexico, and Bruce didn’t really pay any attention until they came back with a new resident. She had apparently been Jane’s lab assistant when Thor had arrived on Earth, and after graduating with her own degree, she’d agreed to take on the job again.

Bruce didn’t pay much attention to that, either, until one afternoon when the door to his lab opened and Darcy Lewis darted in, closing it quickly behind her. 

“Hey, doc,” she said. “Can I hide out here for a little while? I might have, accidentally, re-ordered all of Jane’s notes for the thingy she’s working on, and I need to give her a few hours to get back into her science and forget about it.”

“Um… sure,” said Bruce. “I always like to help a damsel in distress. Not that you’re—”

“A damsel?” repeated Darcy. “Maybe not. But in distress? Definitely. So… thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

She smiled. “You can go on back to your science, doc. I’ve almost beaten this level of Angry Birds.”

Darcy held up her phone, as though that explained something, and Bruce smiled at her before turning back to his microscope. When he looked up again, she was gone.

She showed up fairly frequently after that, sometimes to duck Jane when she was “acting squirrely”, sometimes to share food she’d brought up to the labs, sometimes for no reason at all, and while she usually tried to engage Bruce in conversation, she seemed just as happy to play her phone-game while he worked.

Amazingly, Bruce actually forgot she was there, looking up from his microscope in surprise when she cheered the completion of another level or growled in frustration. And the few times that he’d looked up, expecting to see Darcy and finding his lab empty, he’d tried very hard to ignore the sinking feeling in his stomach.

At least, until he woke up in a crater of broken concrete after de-Hulking.

“Hey, doc,” Darcy said, brightly. She had her back to him, determinately looking in the other direction, a backpack dangling from one hand. “Brought you some pants.”

The ones he’d had on were in shreds and he gratefully took the bag. It contained not just a pair of soft-worn slacks, but an equally-soft t-shirt and button-down, along with a small case that turned out to be his spare eyeglasses. Bruce slid them on, feeling more like himself than he ever had immediately after changing back, and touched Darcy’s shoulder to get her attention.

“Thanks,” he said, sincerely.

She beamed at him. “You’re welcome.”

After that, she always had a clean set of clothes for him after a team mission, and he’d seen her with the same green backpack, even those times the Other Guy wasn’t required.

“So, Doc,” she said, after one mission where the Hulk had been especially busy, “Big Green gave me a message for you.”

“You saw him?” Bruce yelped, spinning around with his t-shirt only half-on.

Darcy reached out to straighten it for him, and she was smiling, looking completely unharmed, so he allowed himself to relax into her touch. “Relax, Bruce,” she said, “He was a complete gentleman. To me, at least. To you, not so much. I believe his exact words were ‘ _Banner stupid. Banner not tell Darcy feelings_ ’. So…”

“I…” Bruce began, but she was still smiling, and he couldn’t help smiling back. “I’m stupid, and I have feelings for you, Darcy.”

Her grin turned blindingly bright. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

THE END


End file.
